Building Better Building Better Minds Through Minds Through

““DendristryDendristry””

~ Building a culture of success through hard work ~

Stehekin is located in the heart of the North Cascades Mts. of Washington.

StehekinStehekin

Stehekin is an isolated community of approximately eighty year-round residents. It is located at the head of the 55 mile long Lake Chelan. You can only travel to Stehekin by foot (not recommended in the winter), boat or plane. There are no roads to Stehekin.

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Looking down Lake Chelan from Stehekin

The Stehekin SchoolThe Stehekin SchoolGrades K — 8Grades K — 8

Setting the Stage:

“Will Rogers once said that it was not ignorance that was so bad, but as he put it, ‘all the things we know that ain’t so.’ Nowhere is this more true than in American education today, where fashions prevail and evidence is seldom asked for or given. And nowhere does this do more harm than in the education of children.”Thomas Sowell - Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Two Examples of Questions educators should ask:

Why has Attention Deficit Disorder been diagnosed in children with such alarming frequency during the past decade?

Do contemporary technological tools actually expand or limit the exercise and development of bodily organs, including the brain, in the lives of growing children?

… recognize children as physical, artistic and intellectual beings.

… recognize the brain as a living, growing organism that gradually develops through distinct maturational stages.

… answer the question, “How do we encourage the growth and development of the brain within the context of a developmentally appropriate educational curriculum?”

Those who educate children should understand - the intellect is

enriched by teaching to the hands and feet.

Educators should:

““Learning is experience. Everything Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.else is just information.””

— — Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein

It is the neurological development of the brain during childhood that defines the intellectual capability of an adult. Each developmental stage of growth has its own physiological and emotional prerequisites. Each

stage of development needs its own, distinctly unique exercise. Ignoring developmental imperatives places children, and our future, at risk.

NeuronsNeurons Brain Seeds Sprouting a taproot-like axonaxon and root hair-like dendritesdendritesSynapsesSynapses are like small globes at the end of dendrites where communication between neurons occur

Physical response

Limbic System

Neocortex Higher level

Thinking

MyelinMyelin is the covering that surrounds the axons and dendrites. The myelin sheath offers protection and nourishment. Myelination moves from the lower structures of the brain responsible for motor development to the frontal lobes of brain by about the age of 16.

ImmatureDendrites

MatureDendrites

SynapsesReed Courtney

Chelsea Courtney

Roger Barnhart Jesse SandersChelsea Courtney

Summary of Brain Research Neurons are stimulated by sensory

experience (interactive vs. visual) Growth of synapses and dendrites provide the foundation for life long learning. A protective coating of myelin makes chemical transmission more efficient. Time and exercise. Myelin coatings move from lower structures — those responsible for motor programs — to the highest centers for academic skills, abstract thought, and wise decision making. Developmental priorities With increasing amounts of environmental enrichment, we see brains that are larger and heavier, with increased dendritic branching. Merely making visual experience of a complex environment available to animals unable to interact with it has little behavioral effect. Whenever touch is combined with the other senses, much more of the brain is activated.

It’s time to bring the brain to school!